Mystic - Mike Nolan was sitting in his computer room in his Meadowbrook Lane home late Wednesday night when he heard a woman scream, "Help me! He's trying to kill me!"

He ran outside and couldn't believe what he saw. His neighbor, Bryan Marshall, was straddling his wife, Adrienne Amero-Marshall, and an obvious struggle was underway, Nolan recalled Thursday.

"He was on top of her on the ground," Nolan said. "When I yelled out to them, he jumped up and ran back inside the home."

Nolan said Amero-Marshall came running to him and was bleeding profusely. Nolan said it appeared that Amero-Marshall had managed to grab a pair of scissors away from her husband, but not before he allegedly had slashed her across the neck.

Nolan said he took Amero-Marshall across the street to safety then quickly ran back to his home to call 911 and to grab a blanket to help stop the bleeding.

Nolan said that shortly thereafter, the couple's home, a two-story garage apartment at 10 Meadowbrook Lane, was ablaze. When Nolan approached the home, he said, he saw Marshall on the ground with a serious head injury and complaining of back pain.